Movie Paper 2

Emily Rice
Religion 124-08
Professor Bass
Movie Paper 2

My Good vs. Yours

In an old-style French village it is easy to imagine one version of God; omnipotent, omniscient, but not necessarily all forgiving. This is the picture of God that we see in the beginning of Joanne Harris and Robert Nelson Jacobs’s Chocolat. The characters in Chocolat have a variety of views on God and religion which seems effected by their levels of status, from Vianne’s atheism and independence to Caroline’s deference and godliness. In this essay I’m going to focus on the Comte de Reynaud, the mayor of the village and the driving moral force, and Pere Henri, the priest who leads the village in worship and allows the Comte to run all over him.
The Comte de Reynaud rules over the village with an iron fist in both the religious and social-political realms. He sets an example for the others in the village by being patient, working hard and by being self-disciplined. When Vianne and Anouk Rocher enter the village and set up shop he takes an immediate dislike, and even vendetta, against the chocolate shop. While in the beginning we see him as a noble, honorable man, once the Vianne arrives he acts immaturely, spreading rumors, insulting her behind her back, and banning the people of his village from entering her shop.
The Comte de Reynaud sees God as a being that requires complete obedience and repentance for sins. The Comte’s God is a hard God to please. It is his belief that his God’s way is the only right way the leads him on his vendetta against Vianne. His vendetta and his belief that only his God’s way is right leads him to adopt Serge as his pupil. It becomes a battle of his civilized God versus Vianne’s chocolate. And ultimately he is defeated, which forces him to latch onto a new cause: the drifters that land on the shore of his village.
Although the Comte is harsh, demanding and often times unforgiving, he still has a heart that cares for the people of his village. When he realizes that Serge attempted to kill the drifters by setting fire to one of their boats, an action which he believed was originally just an “act of God”, he is devastated, banishing Serge from the village, and heartbroken that he caused those lives to be threatened.
The Comte has all of the power in the village. Because of this the people of the village obey his orders. It is unusual for someone to disobey an order from the Comte. When the Comte says (via Pere Henri) that the chocolate shop is a temptation from the devil, the village stays away from it. And when he establishes the “ban on immorality” the town follows his orders, because he has the power, and they are deferential to him. Because the Comte has the power of politics and the church is behind him, for the majority of the movie, the people follow him.
However this is not true for the entire movie. Shortly after the Comte sends Serge away he comes to the revelation that Vianne’s chocolate really is the devil’s temptation and sets himself out to destroy it. In the middle of the destruction a smidge of chocolate falls on the Comte’s lip and he falls into a chocolate-induced craze that causes him to devour some of the chocolate, laughs and then cries himself to sleep. In the morning Pere Henri, who has been the Comte’s pawn for most of the movie, finds him. Henri and Vianne awaken him. At this point the Comte goes through a major change, accepts Vianne and her chocolate shop, and even asks his secretary to dinner, although it takes him six months after his change.
But what about the Comte’s pawn? Pere Henri has been with the village for five months, compared to his predecessors five decades. He is an amicable young man, with a “weakness” for American music. He allows the Comte to rule over him, to boss him around, and to make large changes to all of his sermons (showing the Comte’s control over the church in the village). Pere Henri appears like a naïve, innocent, and weak man, especially when compared to the Comte and to other men in the village. Most of what we see of Pere Henri is his sermons behind the pulpit, which he never appears comfortable saying. We do not see a clear image of Pere Henri’s picture of God until the very end of the movie, after the Comte’s breakdown and when Henri has to stand on his own two feet behind the pulpit.
He sees God as a fair God, and believes that goodness should be measured by who you include, rather than what the Comte was promoting who you seclude, and by what you do rather than what you do not do. His view paints a more accepting picture, one where everyone is equal and the community can include and help everyone rather than try to push potential community members out the door.
His sermon seems to spur a change, especially in the Comte, that is embodied in Vianne’s chocolate festival. People who had stood against Vianne and her chocolate, especially the Comte’s secretary Caroline who followed the Comte’s rules on the bans and even helped promote the ban on immorality, join together to help Vianne, who had previously been a social outcast. After Pere Henri’s sermon the entire villages, including the Comte, go to the chocolate festival. Because chocolate has been the element of conflict for the story, that the community is able to bond together at a chocolate festival speaks of a large change in the social and religious atmosphere of the community.
Ultimately it is Pere Henri’s vision of God that affects the most people. Because of his belief in equality he is a gracious and kind person. His scale of measuring goodness, to measure it by who you include and what you do rather than who you seclude and what you do not do, creates a powerful new philosophy in the village that promotes equality and a safer, healthier atmosphere. Chocolat presents a variety of views of God which effect and change the small French village.